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Character Connection: Rebecca de Winter

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Don’t you just love larger-than-life characters? The ones who jump off the page and grab you? Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t be indifferent to them.

I would love to know about the characters who just won’t leave you! Most of you will probably post about how much you love (or loathe) each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Write a love poem in elvish for Aragorn. Draw a picture of Harry obliterating Voldemort. The possibilities are endless.

Be sure to post the book's title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters.

All you have to do is say her name and anyone who has read the book by Daphne du Maurier will flash on the deceptively perfect wife and her housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers.

Rebecca is dead throughout this entire book, and yet she's the main character. She is literally a larger-than-life personality. Everyone who knew her has strong feelings about her.

To most people, she was the perfect wife and hostess. She's athletic and charming and well-mannered. To the unnamed, insecure second Mrs. de Winter, she's an impossible rival. Mrs. de Winter is young and naive and did not grow up in the wealthy society she marries into. She doesn't know how to act or what to say or what to do. She feels that she's doing it all wrong. It doesn't help that Mrs. Danvers is there telling her that everything she does is wrong and Rebecca would never have done that.

This is where it gets spoilery.

As we keep reading, we find out that Rebecca was a manipulative bitch. I mean, BITCH. Extramarital affairs that she rubs in her husband's face. The way she uses the love Mrs. Danvers has for her. And when Mr. de Winter gets a little inured to the affairs, she ups the ante with a pregnancy, telling him that he will have to raise the child as his own.

She is one screwed-up--well, bitch.

Even after her death, her memory is haunting the new Mrs. de Winter, who never even met her. Her memory is haunting her husband. She almost manages to rob them of their life together with her final lie. I mean, really. How many characters get to be that manipulative from beyond the grave? Well, characters who are really dead and stay dead.

She is a character who has lodged herself firmly in my memory, and I feel safe saying that almost everyone who has read this book remembers her vividly. She might not be a great person, but she is certainly living on, both in her own story and in the world of literature.

Who did you connect with this week? Link your post on Mr. Linky, then be sure to go check out the other Character Connections!

I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore, and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.